CONDÉ’S CREATIVE: Condé Nast is bringing Raul Martinez on full-time as
corporate creative director to work with Anna Wintour, the company’s
artistic director. The appointment is a homecoming of sorts for Martinez,
who has been Vogue’s design director since 2009. He will report to Wintour
and work with her on setting the vision for Condé’s various titles. Condé
did not address how Martinez’s new job would impact the reporting structure
for creative directors at its magazines. A company spokesman did not
comment.

Martinez, who cofounded AR New York, the branding and advertising agency,
will continue to work as creative adviser at his firm, but as a consultant
of sorts. The relationship allows AR to find new ways to bring value to its
portfolio of clients, which include Revlon, Balenciaga, Calvin Klein and
Land’s End.

AR chief executive officer Dianne Desroches told WWD of Martinez’s role:
“It truly was an organic, natural evolution in that relationship [between
Wintour and Martinez], and for Raul’s creativity.” She said his job would
also help foster a closer relationship between AR and Condé Nast, which
would likely include leveraging the content produced by the publisher’s new
native advertising unit, 23 Stories.

In Wintour’s memo to Condé Nast employees on Wednesday, she offered that
Martinez would work with her to “guide the company’s artistic direction
across all platforms,” and he will “bring his keen eye and strong vision to
help shape the creative focus of the company as a whole.”